It is no exaggeration to say that relations with Europe have been among the most egregious, and most avoidable, failures of George W. Bush’s presidency. It was not just his excessive arrogance over Iraq – although that war served to reinforce European hostility.
It wasn’t just one thing about George W. Bush that disconnected him from his European counterparts. It was Bush’s lack of experience and knowledge of the world outside of the United States, it was his obvious lack of interest in how people outside of America perceived the world, it was his arrogance of not even caring to learn, it was his aggressive language, it was his cowboy manners, it was his general way of thinking and the posture he took that all combined to sever relationships with European leaders.
Because of these reasons this trip to Europe is important for Senator Obama.Obama have rightly identified relations with the populous and national leaders of Europe and the United Kingdom as being very important.
With center-right governments in power in Germany and France, and the Conservatives growing in the U.K. the climate for mending fences between the U.S. and Europe is improving and Obama wants to take advantage of the time and opportunity.
Even though Obama has not been in the U.K. or Europe recently, our cousins across the pond have been keenly watching the 2008 elections and it is Senator Obama who has captured their imagination – other candidates not so much. With his relative youth, his allegorical gifts and the ground-breaking ideas he brings to the table, public opinion polls show that if Europeans had a vote, Barack Obama would be elected President of the United States by 60 points tomorrow.
Even though the decision on November 4 is America’s to make and even though all foreign governments have a duty to observe neutrality in other countries elections, it doesn’t mean that “Obamania” won’t break out in Berlin on Thursday!
The independent group VoteVets will start running the ad below against John McCain later this week.The 30 second ad will run on CNN and MSNBC starting on Friday through next week.The group plans to spend $100,000 on the ads.
I initially thought that with Barack Obama out of the country John McCain would take his campaign by the reigns and take advantage of Obama’s out of country experience to sway us democrats to his wayward ways. But no, instead he decides to have a melt down. In addition Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana Governor, announced today that he is happy being governor and doesn’t want to be McCain’s VP.
Ben Smith points out that McCain canceled his press availability because he didn’t want to deal with the mess he’s created for himself.
John McCain cancelled his press meet today because:
·He does not want to talk about Iraq
·He doesn’t want to talk about the economy
·He doesn’t want to talk about energy policy
·He doesn’t want to talk about abortion
·He doesn’t want to talk about Supreme Court Justices
·He doesn’t want to talk about healthcare
·He doesn’t want to talk about his rape jokes
·He doesn’t want to talk about his wife Cindy
He just doesn’t want to talk to the press.
To me, this is the ultimate McCain flip-flop.After complaining for two days about not getting enough press coverage it is comical that he cancels his one press availability.I can’t wait to see what late night shows do with this.
It gets crazier when you realize that the reason McCain won’t talk today is because of the SURGE. The king of SURGE won’t talk about SURGE.John McCain is afraid to talk about the SURGE. John McCain’s campaign would like to you think he absolutely owns the SURGE. But today after his CBS ‘gaffe’ it is clear that he doesn’t even understand the history behind ‘the SURGE’.
If this isn’t a sign that John McCain is in serious trouble, I don’t know what is. SMDH!
Senator Obama’s schedule of meetings today in Israel and Palestine speaks volumes about the difficulty he and all American leaders finds themselves in when it comes to being fair and unbiased with the two countries.
After breakfast with the former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, a tough and unyielding defense minister, Senator Obama went on to meet another strong contender for the premiership – the Likud leader, Benjamin Netanyahu. After that he paid a visit to Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, followed by a meeting with the Israeli President, Shimon Peres.
His afternoon schedule calls for a helicopter tour of the “border” between Israel and the West Bank, the tour ended in Sderot. Sderot is a city in the western Negev, South District of Israel less than one mile from Gaza; it has a population of approximately 23,000 and has been an ongoing target of Qassam rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip so many Israelis have abandoned their homes there.
In between those two meetings Obama met the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in his office in the Muqata in Ramallah.
Of Obama’s 36 hour visit to the Israel/Palestine region, he spent approximately 45 minutes talking to Palestinian spokespersons — this shows how much Obama is concerned about his relationship with Israel.
(During McCain’s last visit to the region he did not visit Palestine — he telephoned President Abbas from Jerusalem)
Mr. Obama did extend an olive branch to Palestine when he crossed into Gaza, a land officially designated by Israel as a hostile entity.
Obama gave his only press conference of the day from Sderot, not Gaza City.
This to me, is probably the most difficult part of Obama’s foreign trip, not because of physical safety, but because he has to speak to three different audiences (Israelis, Palestinians and Jews in the US) and try to make all three audiences happy at the same time – an insurmountable task at best!
Obama arrived in Israel Tuesday night from Jordan.He is scheduled to meet with officials from both Israel and Palestine on Wednesday.He will be in the middle of a diplomatic cross fire since agreeing with either Israel or Palestine will make the other country extremely disgruntled.
He met with Israeli President Shimon Peres and received an amazingly warm welcome from Peres, who said his greatest wish is for a“great president of the United States. That is the greatest promise for us and the rest of the world.”
Senator Barack Obama toured Israel’s Holocaust memorial Wednesday, laying a wreath in memory of the 6 million Jews who died and saying, “Ultimately, this is a place of hope.”
Obama toured the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial on a Jerusalem hillside as he moved through a busy day of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials, including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
At the Holocaust memorial, Obama wore a white skullcap as he laid a wreath in memory of the victims of the Nazis. Later, he said: “I am always taken back to sort of the core question of humanity that the Holocaust raises. That is, on the one hand, man’s great capacity for evil, and on the other hand, our ability to stop evil.”
Published In The Enquirer on July 22, 2008. Vice Presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards was caught visiting his mistress and secret love child at 2:40 this morningin a Los Angeles hotel by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.
The married ex-senator from North Carolina – whose wife Elizabeth continues to battle cancer — met with his mistress, blonde divorcée Rielle Hunter, at the Beverly Hilton on Monday night, July 21 – and the NATIONAL ENQUIRER was there! He didn’t leave until early the next morning.
Rielle had driven to Los Angeles from Santa Barbara with a male friend for the rendezvous with Edwards. The former senator attended a press event Monday afternoon with L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on the topic of how to combat homelessness.
But a months-long NATIONAL ENQUIRER investigation had yielded information that Rielle and Edwards, 54, had arranged to secretly meet afterward and for the ex-senator to spend some time with both his mistress and the love child who he refuses to publicly acknowledge as his own.
The NATIONAL ENQUIRER broke the story of Edwards’ love child scandal last year, when Rielle was still pregnant and Edwards was still considered a strong candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Both parties denied the NATIONAL ENQUIRER report and a close friend of Edwards’ came forward and said he was the father of Rielle’s baby. But sources told the NATIONAL ENQUIRER a far different story – they revealed that Edwards was engineering a massive cover up of his shocking infidelity.
Sources came forward after that story appeared and told The NATIONAL ENQUIRER that Edwards and Rielle had met secretly several times, so that he could see his baby and continue his relationship with Rielle.
The NATIONAL ENQUIRER learned ahead of time that one such meeting was set for yesterday.
At 9:45 p.m. (PST) Monday, Edwards appeared at the hotel, and was dropped off at a side entrance. NATIONAL ENQUIRER reporter Alan Butterfield witnessed the ex-senator get out of a BMW driven by a male companion and stroll into the hotel.
Said Butterfield: “Edwards was not carrying anything. He walked in alone. He was wearing a blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He was looking around nervously before he entered the hotel.”
“Once inside, he interestingly bypassed the lobby and ducked down a side stairs to go to the bottom floor to catch the elevator up – rather than taking the elevator in the main lobby. He went out of his way not to be seen.”
Published In The Enquirer on December 19, 2007. Presidential candidate John Edwards is caught up in a love child scandal, a blockbuster ENQUIRER investigation has discovered. IF this is true my guess is John Edwards will not be Obama’s VP.
Presidential candidate John Edwards is caught up in a love child scandal, a blockbuster ENQUIRER investigation has discovered.
The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively that Rielle Hunter, a woman linked to Edwards in a cheating scandal earlier this year, is more than six months pregnant — and she’s told a close confidante that Edwards is the father of her baby!
The ENQUIRER’s political bombshell comes just weeks after Edwards emphatically denied having an affair with Rielle, who formerly worked on his campaign and told another close pal that she was romantically involved with the married ex-senator.
The ENQUIRER has now confirmed not only that Rielle is expecting, but that she’s gone into hiding with the help of a former aide to Edwards. The visibly pregnant blonde has relocated from the New York area to Chapel Hill, N.C., where she is living in an upscale gated community near political operative Andrew Young, who’s been extremely close to Edwards for years and was a key official in his presidential campaign.
And in a bizarre twist, Young — a 41-year-old married man with young children — now claims HE is the father of Rielle’s baby! But others are skeptical, wondering if Young’s paternity claim is a cover-up to protect Edwards.
Meanwhile, Edwards’ cancer-stricken wife Elizabeth has joined him on the campaign trail.
It is no exaggeration to say that relations with Europe have been among the most egregious, and most avoidable, failures of George W. Bush’s presidency. It was not just his excessive arrogance over Iraq – although that war served to reinforce European hostility. 
